ShanDeRad
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Chapter 8
🕑 Added 2024-04-20 17:17:47 +0000 UTC“It’s your turn to do the watch,” Jerking awake Shaun looked up at Richard who had just nudged him to wake up “it was all quiet, didn’t see or hear anything out there, the first watch said the same. I’m going back to sleep, make sure to wake everyone in a few hours.”
Gabriel and Eric were also in the process of getting up, walking over to the pool of water he took a few sips and wiped his face with his wet hands, trying to wake himself up a bit quicker so he could be more alert of his surroundings. With a yawn and a quick stretch he went over to the others to decide which tunnel they wanted him in, it was decided that Gabriel would start with Eric in the tunnel they had entered from and he would go to the one that they had yet to explore. Walking into the tunnel it was similar to the other one, it quickly curved around and when he reached the point where if he looked to his left he could see in the cavern and when looking slightly to the right he could see down the dark passage, he stopped. Triggering his detection skill he couldn’t feel anything down the tunnel, but that didn’t mean there wasn’t anything further along.
Looking over his skills he saw that from all the scouting and training he had done yesterday his Short Blade skill had hit level 5, as well as his detection skill, while his stealth skill had gone up the most and was now level 7. For having only been in the tutorial for one full day he decided that those were pretty decent gains, he figured the class levels would come with time, as to get class levels he needed to kill monsters, and to kill monsters he needed to have good skills. If I’m going to have to stand guard for the next few hours I may as well start training, after all we are going to need to find something to eat which is probably going to involve hunting down monsters.
He never had checked the items he had gotten from looting the spiderling, he also had no idea on how to get things in and out of his inventory. He knew the System acted on intent so without second guessing himself he tried to bring up a list of what was in his inventory in the same way he would when bringing up his status, appearing in front of his eyes was a list of what was stored. He had the fangs, the poison sac and the leg meat. Okay step 1 was a success, step 2 is figuring out how to take something out and then step 3 obviously putting it back in he chuckled. Starting from the top of the list he focused on taking out one of the fangs and having it appear in his hand, it took a few seconds but eventually it appeared. The fang wasn’t huge, about the length of his hand. He started by testing its strength, it had a slight bend to it but didn’t feel brittle at all, if he was desperate he could probably use it as a makeshift weapon but he had his daggers so there was no need for it at the moment.
*Cave Spiderling Fang – A fang from a Cave spiderling found in a Tutorial from a newly integrated planet. Known to be used by crafters when making crude weapons, can be used in some alchemical creations*
Nothing too useful there. Applying the same logic as he had when he took the fang out of his inventory he willed the fang back in. Not so hard. Moving on. He repeated the process with the venom sac which was a little more interesting, yet also terrifying.
*Cave Spiderling Venom Sac - A venom sac from a Cave spiderling found in a Tutorial from a newly integrated planet. This venom will cause paralysis once introduced to the bloodstream of a living creature. The duration is dependent on the amount of poison injected. If ingested it will cause full body paralysis depending on the amount consumed. Has some alchemical uses*
All it would take is one bite from one of those spiders and you would be stuck, unable to move, probably eaten alive if someone didn’t save you. Yeah I’m going to have to be careful if I ever come across another one of those spiderlings. Finally he came to the last item he had in his inventory.
*Cave Spiderling Leg Meat – Leg meat from a Cave spiderling found in a Tutorial from a newly integrated planet. The only edible part of the Cave Spiderling, safe to consume*
And that solves the food problem, he thought, although I doubt anyone is going to be happy about eating monster meat. Especially since we don’t have anything to cook it with. Not enough for everyone anyway, would probably only feed three people.
Now that he had gotten that out of the way he turned back to training, he would venture down the tunnel for about a minute using all of his skill as he went and would then turn back around and go back towards the cavern. This process continued for over an hour, he hadn’t gained any levels in his skills, it seemed to get harder to improve them the higher they got but he did get into a good rhythm of being able to move in stealth with his dagger at the ready while pulsing his detection skill. As he was walking back to the cavern after having checked down the tunnel again, he noticed Gabriel standing near the cavern looking around. Staying in stealth, he decided that now was a great time to test out his skills on someone else. As he got closer he could hear Gabriel muttering to himself, trying to figure out if he should go down the tunnel to look for him or wake someone up to take over the watch now that he had disappeared. Shaun was able to sneak around Gabriel, getting close enough that he could clearly see the worried look on his face, once he was directly behind the unexpecting Gabriel he broke out of stealth “Looking for me?” Tripping over himself as he tried to spin around as quickly as possible with the bow in his hand, Shaun grabbed hold of his arm to steady him so he didn’t fall over. “Sorry I couldn’t help myself,” he chuckled.
“Damnit Shaun! How did you even do that, I was looking for you and couldn’t see you anywhere. You didn’t even make a noise! What level is that stealth skill even at now?” He held up 7 fingers with a grin on his face, he was proud of the work he had put into boosting his skill levels, and why shouldn’t he be. “Level 7?!?!?! How the hell did you get it to level 7? My highest skill is level 3 and I have been practising man. Wait, yesterday you said your stealth skill was level 5? You’ve gained two levels since we fought the monster! How? Do you have a cheat code or something?”
“Just keep practising, you will get there. Every spare second I have I have been using my skills, trying to level them up.” Moving over to the wall where he would be able to see in both directions Gabriel sat on the ground. “Anything happen in the other tunnel?” Shaun moved to sit next to him, he had been training since he started his shift so having a break was well deserved.
“Nothing, we just sat there and watched, we spoke for a bit, Eric actually isn’t a bad guy when he isn’t around Trevor. You know he has a family? A wife and 2 kids, lives out of the city and has the all American dream, including the house with the white picket fence. He told me about them, wondered where they were right now. You noticed in the welcome message right? There is 100,000 people in this tutorial which means there has to be hundreds of tutorials going on right now, maybe one of them is on a beach where they get drinks delivered to them and we just drew the short straw with this one. My parents, sister and nephews are all out there right now, I just hope they are all okay, you know?”
He didn’t know, he didn’t have anyone out there anymore. He had been alone for nearly as long as he could remember. His mom disappeared the day after she had given birth to him, no one knew why and the police couldn’t find a trace of her after that day. His dad raised him as a single father until he was four, that was when he had gotten into a car accident and never came to pick him up from day care. He didn’t have anyone to take him in, his grandparents on his dads side had died years earlier and he was an only child, while from what he was told, his mother had no family on record. He was placed into an orphanage and went through a few families over the years but never for long periods of time. They always had one excuse or another about how it wasn’t the right fit. Pretty quickly he gave up on trying to find a new home after being returned to the orphanage again and again.
Once he hit 13 he moved into a group home where he mostly looked after himself. He focused on school and would venture out into the nearby forest whenever he got the chance, anything to get away from the people that surrounded him at the home. When he finally turned 18 and finished school he got a full scholarship and moved into a dorm where he spent the next few years studying and working, saving everything he could to make sure that he would always be able to support himself and never have to rely on anyone ever again.
Even to the last day on Earth when he was at that bar, he had always made sure that he had enough saved away so that if he lost his job and couldn’t find employment he would be able to still live for a few years without the need to worry. He had worked hard on his savings, never made impulse purchases and always looked for the bargain, he didn’t have a flashy apartment, just a small one bedroom unit where he had to walk up 6 flights of stairs to get to it as the building didn’t have an elevator, not that all that saving meant anything now.
Looking over at Gabriel who was staring at him waiting for a response, he just shrugged “I don’t have anyone out there to worry about.”
“What do you mean you don’t have anyone? Everyone has someone they care about! What about family? Friends?”
“All my family has been dead since I was four and I don’t have any friends, people just tend to disappoint you when you need them most. It’s easier being alone.”
“I’m sorry, I didn’t know.” He didn’t speak about his life often, people tended to get uncomfortable when you told them that you had no one left in the world, even now Gabriel was fidgeting next to him trying to figure out something to say that would make him feel better. “You do have friends though! What about all of us? We have known each other for years, that has to count for something right?”
Thinking it over he thought of everyone that was in their group right now, he obviously didn’t trust Trevor and his group as far as he could throw them, he always found Jessica to be somewhat annoying, always running around telling people what to do and how to manage their time. He really didn’t know Richard and Danielle that well, outside of some small talk in the office and the occasional outing he really hadn’t had a real conversation with them. Michael was……. well Michael. He was a good guy but it always felt a little forced to Shaun, he was a good boss and always did what he could to help but since getting into the tutorial he also saw the other side of him. As soon as he lost control of the situation he started to put his foot down, trying to exert his will on others. Gabriel though? They would chat in the office every so often and he never tried to force him into a conversation or to go out with the team. Out of everyone there if he had to rely on anyone it would be him.
“Put it this way Gabriel, if I had to choose one person who I trusted to have my back in here, it would be you.”
“See! We are friends! But one thing has to change. My friends call me Gabe, not Gabriel.” Laughing Gabe put his hand on his shoulder and gave it a squeeze. “One friend is better than none right?”
“Sure, Gabe.” Standing up he decided that their little bonding session had been enough of a break. “I am going to head down the tunnel for a bit, check it out and see what I can find. I will be fine though, if you can’t see me when I am standing pretty much right beside you in stealth then I think I can avoid getting caught by any monsters I might come across. If I’m not back in the next hour before we are meant to go wake everyone up then I would say it's safe to assume the worst.”
“Are you sure that's a good idea? We are supposed to stay here on lookout in case anything comes our way.”
“If the tunnel splits I will head back, that way there won't be anything between where we are now and where I end up. Deal?”
“Fine, just be safe okay. And you better make it back in one piece! I can’t lose a new friend.”
With a smile and a wave, Shaun turned away from Gabe and headed down the tunnel, activating stealth he heard mumbling from behind him, complaining about having a level 7 skill. Now was the time for a little recon, they had no idea what was down this tunnel but if he was lucky he would find something interesting, and if he was really lucky he would find some low level monsters that he could further test out his skills on, maybe even gain another level or two he thought. Let the hunt begin.
